Ekiti disburses $25m World Bank SIG Fund to 203 public schools

No fewer than 203 public schools in Ekiti State are to benefit from the $25 million School Improvement Grant (SIG) released by the World Bank to uplift the standard of education in the state.

Wife of the governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, who spoke during the flag-off of the disbursement of the fund under the auspices of the World Bank Agile Project in Ado-Ekiti, yesterday, said the initiative was geared towards boosting adolescent children’s access to education in Ekiti.

The First Lady said that seven states had been listed to benefit from the scholastic programme, with Ekiti being the only beneficiary in the entire 17 states of Southern Nigeria.

She added that parents must begin to change their orientations and treat all genders with equal respect.

The governor’s wife said Nigeria has 13 million out-of-school children, regretting that 60 per cent of them were girls.

She said the staggering and mind-boggling statistics accounted for why she had consistently been advocating robust empowerment for girls and protection of their rights, particularly keeping them safe in schools.

Meanwhile, the Project Coordinator of the SIG Agile Project, Mrs. Oluwayemi Alokan, appealed to the stakeholders to take ownership of the projects being executed under the programme.